Islam and Democracy (Tuesday, April 10)Muslim Minorities in Western Europe (Wednesday, April 11)Catholic-Muslim Relations (Thursday, April 12)

Behind the rhetoric of a "Clash of Civilizations" lies the real challenge of Islam-West relations: dialogue in a spirit of truth. Before we can agree or disagree, we have to listen to one another.

Tariq Ramadan, a fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford, is one of the world's leading Muslim intellectuals. A Swiss citizen of Egyptian descent, he advocates a self-confident Islam that both engages and critiques Western ideas and institutions. For Time he is one of 100 “innovators” of the 21st century and “the leading Islamic thinker among Europe ’s second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants.” To his critics Ramadan is a dangerous fundamentalist. » Ramadan's homepage

The Visa Controversy. Since July 2004 Tariq Ramadan has been unable to enter the United States. Shortly before he was to assume a professorship at Notre Dame University, Ramadan's visa was revoked under the "ideological exclusion" provision of the Patriot Act. The visa denial is the subject of an ongoing legal challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors, and PEN American Center.» background on the Visa controversy

The Scholarly Controversy. Ramadan's views on Islam and the West are controversial within the academy. The Berkley Center has invited three leading American intellectuals to write essays in response to Ramadan -- Sherman Jackson (University of Michigan), Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago), and George Weigel (Ethics and Public Policy Center). The essays and Ramadan's satellite presentations will be folded into a book with Georgetown University Press.

Gaston Hall is located within the Healy Building on the Georgetown Main Campus, 37th and O Streets, NW, Washington, DC.

The most vocal advocate of Wahhabism in France is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss philosophy teacher who happens to be the grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan has been very active in France during the past ten years, spreading his extremist views and becoming the unofficial voice of French Islam. He has now become a "star," appearing constantly on French prime-time television. Ramadan symbolizes the view, as Jacques Jormier, a leading French expert on Islam, puts it, "that does not modernize Islam but Islamizes modernity." The extent to which Ramadan’s brand of totalitarian Islam has gained a strong foothold in France can be seen in the plight of French Muslim women.

In certain cases, French Muslim families are paid 500 Euros (around 600 USD) per trimester by Muslim organizations just to have their daughters wear the hijab....